And that appears to be the main reason why Nvidia is thriving while Mobileye, which is more of a pure play on driveless tech, has been struggling lately. GM(GM), Nissan(NSANF), BMW and Hyundai(HYMTF) are four of Mobileye's biggest customers.

Shares of Mobileye are down 13% this year and 23% over the past 12 months, in part due to fears of increased competition.

Still, the self-driving market may be big enough for more than one player, especially since auto companies aren't the only ones building autonomous cars.

Google parent Alphabet(GOOGL) is developing self-driving vehicles and rumors are running rampant that Apple(AAPL) also has a car in the works.

So there may be enough wealth to spread around for Mobileye, Nvidia and other developers of what will wind up being the guts of self-driving cars.